Category: On Writing

Editing Nightingale

I am in the midst of the second edit of the next Nightingale book. For me this is emotional because I didn’t realize how much work was left to be done on this book. So many times I am in the book (literally) and moving with the character when my editor says “You’ve left me hanging in town—how did we get to Broken Rock?”  In other words, the reader has no idea how the hero got to Broken Rock because I didn’t tell the reader. I correct it.

I’m disappointed in myself and in my book. Is this going to be worth reading? Is this going to make sense? Will a reader enjoy this book?  Will these characters be memorable?Photo from Unsplash

I want this book to be better than the first one.  I guess every writer wishes to keep improving. I keep trying for the magic.

“A writer who hates the actual writing, who gets no joy out of the creation of magic by words, to me is simply not a writer at all… How can you hate the magic which make a paragraph or sentence or a line of dialogue or a description something in the nature of a new creation?” -Letter to Hamish Hamilton, September 19, 1951 by Raymond Chandler

 

Librarians

Just because I love books…..

I just re-read about the horsewomen of Kentucky who worked for the WPA delivering library books on horseback to remote towns and homes. Part of the article from Atlas Obscura (8/31/17) follows:

“They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression, during which, by 1933, unemployment had risen to 40 percent in Appalachia. Roving horseback libraries weren’t entirely new to Kentucky, but this initiative was an opportunity to boost both employment and literacy at the same time.”

The article is amazing.

New Nightingale

The second book (Not An Ordinary Death) is with the editor, so I drug out an older manuscript to work on as I wait.

This older manuscript also has Nightingale as the protagonist, but he’s not the same law man that I have written about in the other two books. What I’m trying to say is:  Nightingale has grown and become a much better hero–not a goody-two-shoes, but a man with a conscience and a soul. Thus is exciting to me because I can see him as a “baby” personality in the first work.

The first mss is going to need tons of work. But Nightingale is nagging me, so cross your fingers that all goes well.

The photo of white hats is from Unsplash by Megan Markham

Exercising

I read this week that exercising helps prevent dementia and generally helps keep us happier. My question is:  does exercising as slow as I go help?

It seems I’ve reached the magic age (might as well think of it as magic) when everything I do is slower.  I used to exercise at a good pace. Now I am more methodical. (Notice I didn’t say plod.)

I used to be limber. I could do splits and sit-ups. Now, to do a sit-up I have to hook my feet under a table. Forget those modern crunches. And forget the splits.

This is to segue into the fact that I learned this week that my paternal grandfather loved to dance. He lived to be ninety-nine. Maybe I can dance and be ninety-nine, also. Photo from Unsplash

Edits

I’m working on edits of the next Nightingale novel. I hesitate to mention this because there will be many, many, more go rounds of this process because I want it to be done well, to be professional, and enjoyable for a reader.  I strive to have no errors in the final book.

In a workshop this past week one of the attendees said she was really disappointed in the errors in the books she had bought on line. That’s what I want to avoid. That’s why I pay an editor and proofreader and cover designer. Why would anyone ever buy another book with my name on it if the first one he/she bought is full of errors?

So, that’s my story. . . it’s in progress, but Nightingale and Garrick are restless to get busy. Stay tuned.

 

Songs

I’ve been shuffling papers lately, working on the new manuscript, throwing out old bills, re-stacking some stacks of items I want to re-read. It seems the bane of my existence is reading. Of course, I mean that in a good way. Reading has always sheltered me from some storms and delivered me from others.

One of the things I’ve found was a copy of the lyrics of “Make Someone Happy.” Essentially, the song says, “Make just one heart the heart you sing to.” And, if you devote yourself to that one person, you’ll make someone happy, “And you will be happy too.”

Reading those lyrics made me smile—in the midst of taxes, rainy days, and a stubborn manuscript—I smiled. Look the song up, it might make you smile too.

Rain

We are scheduled for more rain on Friday. I found this from Tom Robbins to share:

On the mainland, a rain was falling. The famous Seattle rain. The thin, gray rain that toadstools love. The persistent rain that know every entrance into collar and shopping bag. The quiet rain that can rust a tin roof without the tin roof making a sound in protest. The shamanic rain that feeds the imagination. The rain that seems actually a secret language, whispering, like the ecstasy of primitives, of the essence of things.

Grateful in the New Year

This is a late in the year post to say I’ve been writing. I am diligently editing the next Nightingale novel.

But, since I’ve been lax in my posts this will serve as my New Year gratefulness blog. In this new year I am grateful for many things, and I just found out that gratitude is good for your health. What happens when you are grateful is a shift in your hormone pathways. Think about that—a practice of gratitude can reduce inflammation that leads to heart, joint, and other diseases. I can’t imagine a better way to begin each day and the new year.

Photo from Unsplash



Cooking and Writing

I’ve been eating cornbread dressing cooked in scrambled eggs. And I’ve decided after researching many recipes, dressing is almost the perfect food. You can add or subtract whatever you want and visualize a big family gathering if that’s what makes you content.

When I started this post I thought dressing might be a good way to talk about the characters in a book, but I’ve decided that’s not true. Characters should stand alone and be heroes or heroines on their own. They should stick with you individually—maybe like the dressing after it’s cooked—but not as individual ingredients. And great books will have great, memorable characters.

“We connect with people who interest us.
We have fun with people who know how to have fun.
We bond with people who believe what we believe.
But our deepest relationships are with people who have shared our pain.”

Roy Williams, advertising wizard in Austin, TX.

 

New Nightingale

 

Photo from Unsplash

I’m into the first draft of the second Nightingale novel. Believe it or not, everything is new to me. I don’t know if other writers feel the beginning of a new book as a crisp, exciting adventure, but I do. I must confess that I have other manuscripts hidden in various nooks and crannies. They will never see the light of day, so they don’t count.

I’m talking about a fresh manuscript that will be the best quality I can produce at the time. This will take time. A few months (I dare not guess how many), but I am excited and determined to make this a really good read. Keep fingers crossed for me.

Logline for new Nightingale:

“For years Imogene and Portia have tried to be a family to Nightingale but he has worked and resisted their attempts at family ties. After a young man is murdered at their new house, Nightingale must investigate the death and realizes that he needs family more than he ever knew.”